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Eriba stuff ......FOR THE NEXT 5 CATEGORIES PLEASE BE PRECISE BY GIVING FULL DETAILS OF THE TYPE OF ERIBA/TOW CAR/AWNING YOU HAVE TO HELP US ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS. � Anything Eriba-related �

Electric hook up

in Anything Eriba-related Sun Oct 15, 2017 11:51 pm
by Stormin (deleted)

Hello I am going to be taking my recently purchased 2004 Eriba to France on a permanent basis very soon. I have been reading quite a bit on reverse polarity in relation to the electrical hook ups in Europe and in particular France. I understand that it is simply an issue of the live and neutral being the opposite way round to how a UK lead would be wired. I have also read that some people just make up their own lead by simply swapping the two wires around at the connector.
My question is, if I simply bought a French hook up lead in France, would that not achieve the same thing as it's already wired that way. The other question then is whether the blue socket that plugs into the van, is that a universal fitting? Or are U.K. And European plugs different? Many thanks

RE: Electric hook up

in Anything Eriba-related Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:56 am
by thecolliss •

| 137 Posts

Hi, you need a plug in polarity checker (£3), if you have a hook-up cable, a HOOKUP POLARITY REVERSE ADAPTOR will sort if you need it. Only a small length of cable and you can make you own.
I assume a French purchased cable is still a blue Euro cable which will also only cope with one polarity set-up, you could still require the adaptor.
French campsites this year we encountered 2/5 which needed the adaptor. 2/5 site were not the blue Euro adaptor, these were two pin and the campsite gave us an adaptor to Euro. If you were moving around you could purchase (or make) a French two pin to Blue Euro adaptor.
The power ranged between 3-10 amps, mostly 5amps.
You could also purchase a key (UK) which will open the fuse boxes and enable you to reset the power if you trip, in France most boxes were wide open. More useful in the UK

RE: Electric hook up

in Anything Eriba-related Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:49 am
by Aaron Calder •

| 3.834 Posts

If you do a search for 'polarity' using the button above, you will find lots of threads in which this topic has been discussed in depth.

Forum Administrator
2003 Triton 420 and Audi A4 2.0Tfsi S-line SE Cabriolet

RE: Electric hook up

in Anything Eriba-related Mon Oct 16, 2017 9:25 am
by eribaMotters •

| 5.585 Posts

Stormin,
as above says, lots of threads on this. The method I have used abroad since about 2000 is as follows and I started as we originally took or two boys on holiday who wanted a light in there pup tents.
- Buy a 40m cable drum, not a 25 as hook ups can often be further away from your pitch when abroad.
- Cut the end off and fix one of the blue connectors for attaching to the hook up post.
- Buy a 2 pin adaptor for the occasion when you did still find an old style hook up post (more common on muncipal sites).
- Make up a 5m lead with a 3pin domestic plug on one end and the connector needed to fit caravan on the other (use a standard 25m caravan lead if you want, cut down to the length you need and save the connector for the 4om cable drum).
- On site unroll the full cable drum and plug in a polarity tester.
- If all is well stand the drum in a plastic box under the van and run your 5m lead into the van socket.
- if you do have reversed polarity use a short twin outlet correction lead you have pre wired up, swapping +ve and -ve inside.
- if you want to run power to a pup tent, awning etc you can do so easily from either the drum or correction lead. When doing this I used a small plug in rcd for safety as the feed was not benefiting from the vans protection.

Colin

Skoda Yeti diesel 2wd _ ex 430, 552, camplet trailer tent, 310, now a nice new white 430.

Last edited Mon Oct 16, 2017 10:17 am | Scroll up

RE: Electric hook up

in Anything Eriba-related Mon Oct 16, 2017 11:47 am
by Deeps (deleted)

Quote: Stormin wrote in post #1
My question is, if I simply bought a French hook up lead in France, would that not achieve the same thing as it's already wired that way.

If the van is to located in France on a permanent basis then in my view it would make perfect sense to purchase the necessary extension cable in France itself. These can very often be purchased in many of their Supermarkets and are generally cheaper than the equivalent thing back in a shop specialising in camping equipment back in the uk.

The blue three-pin socket is European wide so nothing to worry about on that score.

A short adapter (blue socket to two-pin) might also come in useful as some campsites still use the old type EHU's although these are becoming much rarer nowadays as a result of tougher regulations. This adapter would also be available to buy in France.

I personally wouldn't give too much thought on the subject of reverse polarity. We are located in Germany, with a German made van and with all the necessary cables etc also purchased here. We've travelled several times in the opposite direction (ie to the UK), used UK campsites EHU and never once experienced any problems and neither did we expect too.

The standard sockets in these caravans are non-switchable and I can't somehow see you opening one up and poking around inside anytime soon. In essence the current is flowing the other way round so flicking the switch off on the electric kettle is still going to turn it off, it just means that inside the current flow has been interrupted on the other side of the switch. Like I said, though, if your not going to be playing around inside any sockets or working on the electrical components of the kettle whilst it's still plugged in, you're not going to notice any difference.

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RE: Electric hook up

in Anything Eriba-related Tue Oct 17, 2017 12:11 am
by Stormin (deleted)

Excellent very helpful thank you

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RE: Electric hook up

in Anything Eriba-related Thu Oct 19, 2017 12:21 pm
by BerylFfrangcon (deleted)

I live in France. You cannot leave your caravan permanently in France without it being insured here. Please check this out for your own peace of mind. By the way we have found that MACIF is the best priced insurance for Eribas.